Heavy, bulky, luxury items in the backcountry. Are they worth it?

Core Points:

• Consider personal comfort items for backcountry camping. Prioritize items you’d miss, balancing comfort against added weight.
• Evaluate the necessity of luxury items such as alcohol, lightweight chairs, and pillows for improved backcountry experiences.
• Assess the value of enhanced sleeping arrangements with luxury sleeping pads to mitigate discomfort.
• Determine how important coffee or tea is to your backcountry experience and pack the gear accordingly. Instant options save weight.
• Decide on electronics (e-readers, solar chargers, camera gear) based on trip length and content creation needs.
• Pack specialty food items for enjoyment, particularly for the first night, while being mindful of the increased weight.

Booze? Cast iron fry pans? Camera gear? Bigger tent?
What's your guilty backcountry pleasure?

Transcript

00:00 - 00:01
Hello and good day, eh?

00:01 - 00:04
Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:04 - 00:08
I'm Tim and we are from supergoodcamping.com we're here because we're on a mission to inspire

00:08 - 00:13
other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family today.

00:13 - 00:18
We want to talk a little bit about things that people might lug into the backcountry that might

00:18 - 00:21
be frowned upon because it's a little too heavy or a little too bulky, but you might take it

00:21 - 00:23
just because it gives you comfort.

00:23 - 00:27
It's something that you really enjoy and it's something you'd really miss if you didn't take with you.

00:27 - 00:32
So there's a list of Tim and I will kind of go through. First off is alcohol.

00:32 - 00:38
We've heard other people that we know are backcountry campers talk about having, you know, little.

00:38 - 00:44
Some scotch or some, some whiskey, something like that at the end of the day, sitting around the campfire.

00:44 - 00:46
Certainly that's something you might lug.

00:46 - 00:47
It's not necessarily going to be lightweight.

00:47 - 00:51
You can't really dehydrate alcohol and take it as a powder.

00:51 - 01:00
I don't think if, if that was a doable thing, I would, I would own the patent. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

01:00 - 01:03
Lots of people do, especially when they're traveling.

01:03 - 01:09
Multiple people in the party, it's and will be higher percentage because you know, taking beer

01:09 - 01:14
into the back country maybe, maybe for the first night if you've got a not terribly crazy portage

01:14 - 01:18
or something because 5% alcohol, it's like, oh, that was good. I.

01:18 - 01:20
What was the point of that? There.

01:20 - 01:26
I know that there are, there's a bit of a hiking convention might be the wrong term but when

01:26 - 01:32
people hike and they, they like do mountain hiking when they reach the peak, it, there's a,

01:32 - 01:34
there's a cheers deal with, with the beer. You like to.

01:35 - 01:38
You like a heavy because. Because that's hiking, man.

01:38 - 01:39
You're carrying that thing the whole way.

01:40 - 01:44
They will do cheers for a beer at the top and be all excited and then be thankful that they

01:44 - 01:47
don't have to carry that weight back down. Except that they do.

01:47 - 01:52
It's just, just in their bladder. Lightweight chair or stool. That's it.

01:52 - 01:53
That's a fairly new one.

01:53 - 02:02
I want to say maybe three, three, three summers ago that Thomas and I got the little tiny little chairs. Yeah.

02:02 - 02:08
I'm not adverse to sitting on a, you know, a pre made bench or finding a stump that's been worn by other people's butts.

02:08 - 02:09
So it's nice and smooth.

02:10 - 02:11
Sometimes you just can't find that.

02:11 - 02:17
Or we've spoken to a number of people who swear by spend the money.

02:17 - 02:22
Get the good chair at the end of the day, especially after a lot of paddling and a lot of portaging

02:22 - 02:27
and doing that sort of backcountry thing or you know, the ultralight hikers even still some

02:27 - 02:30
of them will carry it because, you know, sore back. Sore.

02:30 - 02:33
But at the end of the day, plunk it down. We're good.

02:33 - 02:34
Sitting on a rock. Not fun.

02:34 - 02:36
Rocks are definitely not fun.

02:36 - 02:38
Pillow. So you might take a pillow.

02:38 - 02:42
Especially if you're sleep is a little dicey.

02:42 - 02:46
Sometimes you want to get a good night's sleep so you've got the energy for the paddling or

02:46 - 02:47
the hiking or whatever the next day.

02:47 - 02:48
So you might want to take them.

02:48 - 02:53
So we have a couple of like really compressible mech pillows.

02:54 - 02:57
Yep, they're foam. I think ours are the medium ones.

02:57 - 02:59
For me, if I didn't have a pillow.

02:59 - 03:04
We've done the, you know, stuff your clothes in a sack and use that as a pillow.

03:05 - 03:08
It's sliding all over the place. It's uneven throughout.

03:08 - 03:14
I never, I've never done a good job of packing that. That sack. So the pillow. Pillow works well.

03:14 - 03:20
Keeps my neck from being all kinked up in the morning and I'm not spring chicken anymore. So pills. Pills go with me.

03:21 - 03:23
So luxury sleeping pad would be next on the list.

03:23 - 03:30
I know that there are people that do it and especially ones that are, you know, have a little

03:31 - 03:32
less of their own padding.

03:32 - 03:34
So, you know, you're sleeping on. You're not necessarily.

03:35 - 03:36
It's not always a flat spot.

03:36 - 03:38
There's going to be roots. Rocks.

03:38 - 03:40
Rocks go poorly for the bottom of your tent.

03:40 - 03:43
Just saying that sort of deal. So, yeah, I.

03:43 - 03:45
I don't think I'd be adverse to it. I've got a.

03:45 - 03:47
Oh, I don't know what that one was that you got me.

03:47 - 03:48
Thermarest.

03:48 - 03:49
It's a Therma rest.

03:49 - 03:51
Don't know which model though.

03:51 - 03:53
So it puffs up nice and thick.

03:53 - 03:55
But it is definitely bulkier, et cetera.

03:55 - 04:00
So it's kind of squeaky. I think it's very. It's very squeaky. So it's not.

04:00 - 04:04
It's not my favorite one to take up, but I might be inclined to. There might be.

04:04 - 04:10
If I knew sort of what the terrain we were getting into and was going to be less favorable for a thinner pad.

04:10 - 04:11
I might, I might just take it.

04:11 - 04:14
And deal with the squeak coffee gear. So I.

04:14 - 04:15
I know people do this.

04:15 - 04:20
I know that they take their French press with them out in the backcountry and if people are

04:20 - 04:25
just really coffee aficionados personally Tim, Tim will do more of an instant and I'm more of

04:25 - 04:26
a chai tea lady so.

04:27 - 04:28
But I will take my chai tea stuff.

04:28 - 04:35
So I'll mix at home dehydrated soy milk because I'm not a milk person with some sweetener and

04:35 - 04:43
then my chai spice mix and then I just got as a powder kind of like an instant coffee or an instant hot chocolate mix.

04:43 - 04:52
Yeah, I'm an instant guy but lots of people do like cowboy coffee French presses. You know that it's.

04:52 - 04:57
Coffee's a thing for the backcountry people and all the more power to them.

04:57 - 05:01
I'm good with just mixing my up books for e readers.

05:01 - 05:03
I take, I take often take both.

05:05 - 05:09
Guaranteed to take my E reader with me because it's super light and has a bunch of books in it.

05:09 - 05:14
But if I'm working on, you know, Adam Schultz latest book or a Kevin Callan or, or whatever

05:15 - 05:17
if I'm on that and it's.

05:18 - 05:21
It's going to fit my mood while I'm out there, I'll take it with me.

05:21 - 05:29
Yeah. Portable solar charger. Just that's something that we almost always will take just because devices need charger.

05:29 - 05:33
Yeah. It would depend on your length of trip.

05:33 - 05:35
You might get away with a power bank.

05:35 - 05:39
It also depends on how many devices you know how much will get into cameras and stuff.

05:39 - 05:46
But you know you got your phone, you've got your, your Garmin Inreach or Zolio or what have you. They're.

05:46 - 05:50
They're gonna need charging and solar's a good way to do it. So.

05:51 - 05:57
And specialty food items or like those big steaks for that first night when you get there.

05:57 - 05:59
So those are gonna be heavy. But.

05:59 - 06:01
But it's worth it for at least that first dinner.

06:01 - 06:06
Yeah, I just watched man, I forget the name of the channel now.

06:06 - 06:07
It's a mountain bike channel.

06:07 - 06:14
A gentleman shot us an email talking about one of our previous episodes and I went and checked

06:14 - 06:22
his out and they did a seven day trip. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of them did a seven day trip with two barrels

06:22 - 06:30
full of fresh food. 120 pounds of fresh food and double carries on every portage.

06:30 - 06:32
And not short portages.

06:32 - 06:38
Not short portages. But man, I gotta tell you their meals look pretty awesome at the end of every day. So win there.

06:39 - 06:40
Camera gear.

06:40 - 06:42
Camera gear. So I have a.

06:44 - 06:47
I know Pelican is a brand name But I call it a pelican case.

06:47 - 06:50
A safe, a hard, hard case for our gears.

06:51 - 07:01
And I carry four action cameras, a point and shoot, couple of power banks in there.

07:02 - 07:08
We've got a microphone array, we carry wackish stuff.

07:08 - 07:14
Plus, plus batteries for all of it, plus the charger bases, plus the solar charger, as you know,

07:14 - 07:18
mentioned, and a whack of cables, not lights.

07:19 - 07:26
And I know I very seldom, literally never publish any of our stuff, but I have a boatload of

07:26 - 07:34
memories on a two terabyte hard drive that I occasionally pull out and watch and remember trips and stuff like that.

07:34 - 07:35
So I'm okay with it.

07:35 - 07:42
And if you are a youtuber or you're an Instagram person, then you might need all that equipment for your. For your channel.

07:42 - 07:48
Yeah, absolutely. Although there are people who do. Very stripped back camper. Christina uses her iPhone. That's it.

07:48 - 07:52
That's the entirety of her gear, which is. That's stunning. That's amazing.

07:52 - 07:59
But you also, then you also end up getting into tripods and selfie sticks and stuff like that.

07:59 - 08:05
So it can very quickly get out of control with how much stuff you're taking with you. Just saying.

08:05 - 08:08
You might want some special shoes for when you're sitting around in camp.

08:08 - 08:15
So some Crocs or some sandals or some even in slave booties to keep your feet warm, especially if it's cooler weather.

08:15 - 08:16
Yeah, lots of people do.

08:17 - 08:25
Personally, I, I take my, my boots, my hiking boots with me and, and I've got a set of Keen. Keen.

08:25 - 08:31
I think they're actually classified as canoe sandals or they might be hiking sandals because

08:31 - 08:37
I sweat like crazy and, you know, I'm forever stepping in the water and out of the water and waterproof boots don't drain.

08:37 - 08:40
So sandals work well for me.

08:40 - 08:46
And yeah, you know, keep your, keep your feet from being all stinky or less stinky or wet. Yep.

08:47 - 08:51
And lantern. Something that might be a heavier lantern that you're taking. We don't.

08:51 - 08:52
We take the Lucy lights.

08:52 - 08:54
Yeah, we, we have lanterns.

08:54 - 08:57
We take them front country camping with us. We have a couple.

08:57 - 09:02
I think we have a Coleman battery operated one, but yeah, really heavy because it is.

09:02 - 09:05
It's like 10 big batteries, but it lasts for forever.

09:05 - 09:07
And you can be, you know, you can be.

09:07 - 09:11
It can be bright enough to have four people sitting around playing a game of Monopoly.

09:11 - 09:11
So not a big issue.

09:11 - 09:16
But the Lucy lights, they collapse their solar rechargeable light.

09:16 - 09:20
They have plenty of light for most of the things you're doing in worst case. Yeah, you've got.

09:20 - 09:21
You Know you've got your headlamp to do so.

09:21 - 09:29
Musical instruments. So you want to, might want to take a ukulele, a harmonica guitar in the backcountry. It's.

09:29 - 09:34
Tim has informed me we're not allowed to take any kind of amplified music.

09:34 - 09:39
Correct. Ontario parks, I can't, I can't even speak for national parks, although I would make

09:39 - 09:40
the assumption it's a similar deal.

09:41 - 09:44
But yes, Ontario parks, you cannot have amplified music.

09:44 - 09:45
Doesn't matter what's coming out of your phone.

09:46 - 09:47
Doesn't matter if it's a Bluetooth speaker.

09:47 - 09:50
I'm looking at mine across the way there. None of it.

09:50 - 09:55
I can't say that I've never heard it because I have.

09:55 - 09:57
I can't say that I'm not guilty of.

09:57 - 10:00
Very low level tragic clip.

10:01 - 10:07
The, the summer after Gord passed away, I, I was feeling very, very sad for losing a Canadian icon.

10:08 - 10:10
So we played a little bit of Three Pistols.

10:10 - 10:12
Tom Thompson came paddling past.

10:12 - 10:15
It felt, felt like the right song to be played. Just saying.

10:15 - 10:17
Extra layers or extra clothing.

10:17 - 10:20
They do get bulky and, and they tend to be heavy.

10:20 - 10:25
Unless you spent a ridiculous amount of money on, you know, something with a special fleece

10:25 - 10:28
layer and Gore Tex and who knows what else.

10:29 - 10:35
Yeah, you know what, you're, you're outdoors all the time when you're camping. Certainly, certainly backcountry camping.

10:35 - 10:40
That's one that I would probably be inclined to take because, you know, what if you, what if

10:40 - 10:44
you have, what if you got wet weather and you've got no wood, so you, you're not.

10:44 - 10:47
Or you've got no dry wood, so you're not, you know, you don't have a fire.

10:47 - 10:49
You don't have, you're wet.

10:49 - 10:50
You get in your sleeping bag.

10:50 - 10:53
Now your sleeping bag's wet, so you're, you're kind of screwed. Right.

10:54 - 10:58
I would certainly take something with me extra cooking things.

10:58 - 11:03
So. Especially for the gourmet cooking aficionados, you might want some spice kits, some frying

11:03 - 11:07
pans, even some gourmet cooking tools like a, a grater.

11:08 - 11:11
Yes. Cinnamon for your chai tea or whatever. Right.

11:11 - 11:11
Yeah.

11:11 - 11:16
I, Well, I, I, I have heard of people who take like a cast iron fry pan.

11:16 - 11:19
I, I've never personally take one in the back country. I have front country.

11:19 - 11:24
I have found them in the back country though, so, so they've only made the trip one way, people.

11:25 - 11:26
Yeah, that's way too heavy. One, of course.

11:26 - 11:29
What was I thinking? Yeah. Or I'm a dick.

11:30 - 11:35
Luxury tent or tarp setups. I don't know.

11:35 - 11:37
I mean, I suppose you could take a bigger one.

11:37 - 11:45
As I get, as I become more senior, I'm less inclined to try to get dressed on my knees because my.

11:45 - 11:47
The roof is a low dome and stuff like that.

11:47 - 11:52
So we've got a little more space in the new tent, a little more height in the new tent.

11:52 - 11:58
I think that's as far as I would go if it was a luxury item backcountry.

11:58 - 12:03
If we were especially we're spring camping, I would take like a, you know, a no bug zone sort of thing.

12:03 - 12:05
Like a mesh with a sharp roof on it.

12:05 - 12:08
Yep, that's, that's. I vote for that.

12:08 - 12:11
Yes, I'm sure you do a notebook or journal.

12:11 - 12:14
We talked about that in our, in our gift episode.

12:15 - 12:21
About taking a journal, something to document your travels or document your adversity that you ran into.

12:21 - 12:22
Yeah.

12:22 - 12:26
Or if you're happen to be an artist, maybe you want to take some art supplies, do some sketching

12:26 - 12:28
and stuff, watercolors or whatever.

12:28 - 12:30
Lots of people actually do do sketching.

12:30 - 12:34
Then they come back home and turn it into a painting or some people even do trek.

12:34 - 12:42
I mean, group of seven, a lot of their, there's a lot of their paintings were them hiking into

12:42 - 12:47
a place, plunking their butts down on a beautiful vista, and, and having lugged their, their

12:47 - 12:49
gear with them too, and doing a painting.

12:50 - 12:56
I know Tom Thompson used to do little, I say three by three or four by four panels and then

12:56 - 12:59
come, come home and sort of expand it, like repaint it, but.

12:59 - 13:04
But he painted them in color. That's wild fishing gear. Yeah.

13:05 - 13:12
As long as you're in a place you can fish and you're in season to fish and you have a license to fish. How about her, man? I, I.

13:13 - 13:18
Fresh fish in the backcountry is pretty close to the best thing ever.

13:19 - 13:25
Well, and you're not gonna maybe like your entire tackle box, but you might pare it down to.

13:25 - 13:31
We, we do. We pare it down to a, a small plastic thing with half a dozen slots in it or little,

13:31 - 13:37
you know, compartments in it and, and take your six favorites and a couple of just bare hooks

13:37 - 13:42
and a bobber in case, you know, you can find a worm and go like that, whatever.

13:42 - 13:46
And then you might want to take a lightweight blanket or quilt just for some extra warmth around the campfire.

13:46 - 13:52
Even if you do get a really unexpectedly chilly night, you've got some extra bedding to keep yourself warm.

13:52 - 13:54
We have, we've had it. We've had it.

13:54 - 14:01
Dropped something crazy like 2022 degrees Celsius over the course of 24 hours.

14:02 - 14:03
It went, it went from.

14:03 - 14:07
From a nice warm balmy to almost freezing.

14:07 - 14:11
And our, our sleeping bags were not up to the task.

14:11 - 14:16
So I, we, we froze because we didn't have nothing extra.

14:17 - 14:21
So these things are just your, your own personal priorities, things that you might just really

14:21 - 14:27
feel like it's important to you to have or take as an extra indulgence and you're the extra weight.

14:27 - 14:33
So you're kind of balancing out the pros of having that comfort and the cons of having to lug the extra weight.

14:33 - 14:38
Yeah. And if, if you've got any thoughts on things that you like to take into the backcountry

14:38 - 14:42
that we haven't tackled here, we'll be more than happy to, to yak about it at a future dates.

14:42 - 14:42
Yeah.

14:43 - 14:44
Or send us your post it in.

14:44 - 14:45
The comments on YouTube. Absolutely.

14:45 - 14:47
Let us know what you love to take with you.

14:48 - 14:53
Any of your personal indulgences that you just really feel like you have to have with with you when you're camping.

14:53 - 14:54
We'd love to hear about it.

14:54 - 15:01
Like, I chat, I know I chatted with a gentleman a couple years back, but he, he planned his portages.

15:01 - 15:05
He didn't care how long they were, as long as they were relatively smooth because that was his

15:05 - 15:08
one thing that he wouldn't go without. He.

15:08 - 15:14
He took a cart to, to drag his canoe so that he didn't have to put it over his head and he wouldn't

15:14 - 15:17
have to, you know, double carry and do triple, triple trips.

15:17 - 15:22
So I thought, you know, that's a, that's a pretty smart deal also going up and then going down.

15:22 - 15:25
It's never really fun in the grand scheme of things.

15:27 - 15:28
All right, that's it for us for today.

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Thank you so much for listening and please do check us out on all the social media.

15:33 - 15:37
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15:37 - 15:42
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15:42 - 15:47
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15:47 - 15:50
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15:59 - 16:01
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16:06 - 16:08
this will publish just before.

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And if not, then it'll be before.

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Should be last minutes on the 23rd, just before. So have.

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Have a merry Christmas, have the happiest of New Year's, and we'll talk to you again soon. Bye.